Judges Weigh Immunity for World Bank Arm in India Pollution Case

摘要

A panel of appellate judges grappled Monday with whether an international financier can be held liable in U.S. court for funding a coal-fired plant that residents of a nearby village in India claim wrecked their air and water. Budha Jam v. International Finance Corp.- argued at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit-is seen by some as a test of whether international funding groups with U.S. offices can be sued in American courts for international pollution. The lawsuit made its way to the Supreme Court in 2019. It was appealed after a subsequent lower court decision let the International Finance Corporation off the hook the following year for pollution in a fishing village on India's Gujarat coast. At issue is whether the U.S.-based activities of the World Bank arm, also called IFC, were commercial actions that led to the harms alleged in the complaint. Budha Ismail Jam and fellow fishermen sued the IFC in 2015 over the $450 million loan that financed the Tata Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project near their village.